Hong-Peng Shi,Ying-Hao Zhao,Mei-Lin Zheng,Cheng-Yan Gong,Lei Yan,Ying Liu,Yong-Ming Luo,Zhi-Pei Liu
The performance of bacterial strains in executing degradative functions under the coexistence of heavy metals/heavy metal-like elements and organic contaminants is understudied. In this study, we isolated a fluorene-degrading bacterium, highly arsenic-resistant, designated as strain 2021, from contaminated soil at the abandoned site of an old coking plant. It was identified as a member of the genus Rhodococcus sp. strain 2021 exhibited efficient fluorene-degrading ability under optimal conditions of 400 mg/L fluorene, 30 °C, pH 7.0, and 250 mg/L trivalent arsenic. It was noted that the addition of arsenic could promote the growth of strain 2021 and improve the degradation of fluorene – a phenomenon that has not been described yet. The results further indicated that strain 2021 can oxidize As 3+ to As 5+ ; here, approximately 13.1% of As 3+ was converted to As 5+ after aerobic cultivation for 8 days at 30 °C. The addition of arsenic could greatly up-regulate the expression of arsR / A / B / C / D and pcaG / H gene clusters involved in arsenic resistance and aromatic hydrocarbon degradation; it also aided in maintaining the continuously high expression of cstA that codes for carbon starvation protein and prmA / B that codes for monooxygenase. These results suggest that strain 2021 holds great potential for the bioremediation of environments contaminated by a combination of arsenic and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. This study provides new insights into the interactions among microbes, as well as inorganic and organic pollutants.
Jihong Yang,Hanchen Zhou,Yaqin Liu,Hui Wang,Yujie Xu,Jianqin Huang,Pandeng Lei
Green tea processed from albino tea varieties often has umami taste and fresh aroma. This study identified green teas made from two types of albino tea cultivar, one having the white shoots (called Naibai, NB) and the other having the yellow shoots (called Huangjinya, HJY). Taste compounds analyses showed that galloylated catechins were highly concentrated in HJY green teas, whereas non-galloylated catechins and amino acids were more abundant in NB green teas. CsTA (involved in the catabolism of galloylated catechins) showed high expression in HJY tea shoots, resulting in gallic acid as a precursor for β -glucogallin biosynthesis being abundant in HJY. CsPDX2.1 (responsible for theanine hydrolyzation) had a lower expression level in NB than HJY shoots. Fatty acid–derived volatiles (FADVs), glycosidically bound volatiles (GBVs) and carotenoid–derived volatiles (CDVs) were highly concentrated in HJY green teas, whereas amino acids–derived volatiles were highly concentrated in NB green teas.
High- Q and temperature-stable ceramics are indispensable in microwave engineering. However, medium-permittivity ( ε r ∼ 60, named as K60) microwave dielectric ceramics that meet the above demands are yet to be synthesized. High- Q Ba 4 Sm 9.33 Ti 16.5 Al 2 O 54 (BSTA) and Ca 0.6 Sm 0.27 Ti 0.8 Al 0.27 O 3 (CSTA) ceramics have large resonant frequency temperature coefficients ( τ f ) with opposite signs. The composites of the two are expected to have good dielectric properties , but there will be obvious diffusion when they are compounded with each other by sintering after directly mixing the raw powder, which would lead to severe deterioration in dielectric properties. In this work, the undesired diffusion can be effectively avoided by stacking two or three ceramic layers together, which are achieved by two methods named adhesive bonding and spark-plasma-sintering (SPS) cofiring. The finite element method (FEM) analysis with COMSOL Multiphysics proposed in this work can precisely predict the microwave dielectric properties of layered ceramics, helping to determine the ratio of different layers to reach near-zero τ f . The adhesive-bonded layered ceramics exhibit excellent dielectric properties: ε r = 62.2, Q × f = 21,400 GHz, and τ f = –0.7 ppm/°C. The SPS-cofired layered ceramics can be fabricated in one time, partially solving the problem of sintering mismatch between different layers, together with superior properties of ε r = 59.8, Q × f = 19,780 GHz, and τ f = –0.6 ppm/°C. These layered ceramics could fill the gap of high- Q and temperature-stable K60 microwave dielectric ceramics. The layer-stacking process and related FEM simulations can be used to design more high- Q and temperature-stable microwave dielectric ceramics and devices.